Fallout 3 non-player weapons

This page is about Fallout 3 non-player weapons only. For all Fallout 3 weapons, see Fallout 3 weapons.

Fallout 3's Gamebryo engine requires all non-player characters, characters and script effects to use a weapon to shoot a projectile. Some of these "weapons" are only meant to be used by the non-player character, but can be obtained via console commands.

The same is true for the default weapons used by followers; while usually different from their standard counterparts, they are not meant to be used by the player either.

Contents

Damage per shot - Damage: This information comes straight from the G.E.C.K. and shows the damage caused by a single click of the mouse/trigger. For most small guns, that's a single bullet, but for shotguns it's a single shell (containing several small pellets), and for the Gatling laser it's a single beam. This stat is most useful for comparing semi-automatic weapons like rifles, where you can see the full damage caused by a single shot, regardless of how long it takes to load and fire the next one.

Damage per second - Damage per second: The maximum cyclic damage dealt in one second, expressed as rate of fire times damage. Weapons that require a reload every shot have damage per second shown including reload times, all others show sustained rates without reloads.

Rate of fire - Rate of fire: The maximum cyclic number of shots/attacks per second, without considering reloading.

Weapon Spread - Spread: This is the Min Spread stat from the G.E.C.K. (the Spread stat is not used). It refers to the accuracy of a ranged weapon. 0 means the weapon can potentially fire perfectly straight, if stance, weapon skill, and weapon condition are optimal. Anything above 0 means the shots may deviate from center by that many degrees regardless of stance, skill, or condition.

Critical Chance multiplier - Critical Chance multiplier: The multiplier applied to your character's Critical Hit chance. This modifier applies to each individual attack you make (e.g. each 5mm bullet fired from your minigun). For example, if your character has a Critical Hit chance of 5%, and the weapon you're using has a CRIT % MULT of x2, then each shot has a 5% x 2 =10% chance to critically hit. For automatic weapons (assault rifles, SMGs, miniguns, etc.) the Crit % Mult stat in the G.E.C.K. is divided by the G.E.C.K.'s Fire Rate stat, hence the very small multiplier for automatic weapons. This is done to compensate for the sheer number of bullets being fired. Note that single V.A.T.S. attack, with automatic weapons, only checks for critical hit once, applying damage bonus for all bullets in such attack if Critical Hit is done.

Critical Hit damage - Critical Hit damage: The amount of damage that is added when you score a critical strike. The more specialized Sneak Attack Critical deals twice the damage of a common critical strike.

Action Point cost - Action Point cost: The amount of Action Points used per shot in V.A.T.S.

Area of Effect - Area of effect: The blast radius of the explosion in units of measurement displayed in the G.E.C.K.

Item health - Item health: This is the number of hit points that a weapons' durability is based on.

Ammunition used - Ammunition used: The type of ammunition the weapon uses.

Magazine capacity (shots per magazine) - Magazine capacity: The maximum ammunition capacity of the weapon. Shots per reload: The maximum number of shots possible from a full magazine.

*Sometimes this weapon does not do any damage, and leaves most keys unusable (the console, esc button, tab) while it loops the reload animation. If this occurs, reload a save state prior and just drop the weapon.

Inventory name is <name missing> and shows no name when dropped. When fired, the missile has extremely fast speed, and shows rocket-propelled thruster animation from the back of each missile. Rads in the center of the explosion are +30/sec. Should be cautious, as this projectile can go outside the render distance. Once the missile hits an object, another sound effect will play, this is the "Wind" sound effect from the explosion.